Wednesday, November 15, 2017

1) Have you been thinking of starting or growing an Etsy business? Alicia Shaffer’s company, ThreeBirdNest, earns nearly $1 million a year on the site, selling handmade leg-warmers, scarves, and headbands.

4) Would you like a simple way to be more productive, optimistic, and empowered? This YouTube video delivers a pep talk on the Power of Questions - and how you can apply it to your creative pursuits, personal goals, and your life.

5) Lena Danya is a full-time visual artist with more than 270,000 YouTube subscribers and an impressive online audience. Lucky for us, she shares her best advice for artists who want to get their work out there and build a following on social media.

6) You probably have more promotion ideas than you know what to do with. The trick is taking those random concepts and crafting them into a concrete marketing plan - one you can wrap your brain around and actually act on!

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Here are seven quick, hand-picked links I thought you might find helpful:1) Fear and uncertainty are the evil twins that stop most creative people in their tracks. Here's a short video on how to overcome them. (Believe it or not, hogwash, Jethro, and circus clowns are part of the cure.)2) Nicolette Stinson covers 7 Common Myths About Following Your Passion. In #2, she debunks the "Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow" myth. It's a nice idea, but there are many additional factors that influence someone becoming an abundant artist.I also covered this topic in this video from 2011.3) Cory Huff dispels another myth: Artists can't sell. Hogwash! (There's that word again.) The solution is simply to ask other creatives how they sell. Cory asked, and he got answers!

So, you have an awesome idea for a business you'd like to create. You feel inspired to pursue a career as an artist, writer, musician, actor ... or you want to create your own start-up or nonprofit organization.

You want to express yourself, do good in the world, and make money doing it. Fantastic!

Here are five essential principles to help you build your own independent career, based on my many years as an author, musician, artist, and actor - and being self-employed in the arts.

If you understand these success habits now, you'll have a much easier road ahead of you.